January 19, 2002, New York Times, Pacific Terror: Unease Grows In Philippines On U.S. Forces, by James Brooke,

January 19, 2002, New York Times, Pacific Terror: Unease Grows In Philippines On U.S. Forces, by James Brooke,

A political firestorm has erupted in the Philippines over the impending arrival of some 650 American soldiers dispatched to help battle an Islamic insurgency. A few senators here are even demanding the impeachment of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, only a year into her term, and her vice president has said he feels uneasy about the policy.

In an attempt to calm the political furor in a nation that 11 years ago voted to end a century of nearly unbroken American military presence, Philippine and American officials today stressed again and again that Filipinos will do the fighting and Americans will do the advising.

''There will not be joint operations, there will be operations of Philippine troops, with American advisers,'' Lt. Gen. Narciso L. Abaya, deputy chief of staff of the Philippine armed forces, said in an interview in the military's command headquarters. ''It will be 100 percent Filipino. The Filipinos will call the shots.''

At the core of the American military mission is a group of about 85 training sergeants from the United States Special Forces who are to work closely with Philippine units battling the Abu Sayyaf insurgents in the southern Philippines.

Though polls show popular support for the troops, their arrival will be subject to a formal inquiry by the Philippine Senate next Tuesday.

The controversy is overshadowing the first anniversary, on Sunday, of Mrs. Arroyo's rise to the presidency. Her vice president, Teofisto Guingona, has denied rumors that he will resign as foreign secretary, but he has been publicly unenthusiastic.

''I fully support President Arroyo in the objective of rescuing the remaining hostages of the Abu Sayyaf,'' Mr. Guingona told a local radio station today. ''But I also expressed some of my concerns.''

Influencing the debate is the experience, a century ago, of American soldiers' conducting bloody counterinsurgency campaigns to consolidate control over the Philippines, a former Spanish colony.

''Our military aren't just puppets of U.S. officials,'' said Rigoberto Tiglao, the president's spokesman. ''It is very clear that all U.S. personnel are under the strict command and supervision of Philippine officers.''

In the field, the American trainers are to accompany Filipino units, not lead them. However, they will not formally be placed under Filipino officers' command, and Mr. Tiglao's comment seemed intended mostly to tamp down nationalist anger here.

President Arroyo was thrown further on the defensive this morning when newspaper hawkers hit the streets trumpeting banner headlines like ''US Senator says RP next Afghanistan,'' using an abbreviation for the Republic of Philippines.

The headlines were trumpeting comments made by Sam Brownback, a Republican from Kansas, who spoke in Wichita, near the hometown of Martin and Gracia Burnham, an American missionary couple held hostage by the Abu Sayyaf. Mr. Brownback said, ''It appears the Philippines is going to be the second, the next target, after Afghanistan in the war on terrorism.''

In reply, Mrs. Arroyo told reporters today: ''We are not the next, because we have long been fighting terrorists. As far as I am concerned, we have long fought terrorists and after Sept. 11 it was the Americans who joined us.''

At the bayfront American Embassy, Robert W. Fitts, the acting chargé d'affaires, said flatly: ''The Philippines is not the next front. And the Philippines is not Afghanistan.''

Abu Sayyaf is suspected of having links to Al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden's network, although evidence for that is sketchy. Now numbering about 500 armed fighters, Abu Sayyaf seems at its core to be a bandit group in the pirate tradition of the southern Philippines. Its fighters have carried out massacres on the southern islands of Basilan and Jolo, but recently the group has made a specialty of kidnapping foreigners and earning huge ransoms for their release.

One recent public opinion poll, by Social Weather Stations, a leading private group, found that 81 percent of respondents supported the idea of United States assistance for the Philippine fight against the Abu Sayyaf hostage takers.

If such patterns continue, Mrs. Arroyo will be able to ride out the political storm. But her presidency may emerge with some dents.

Jovito Salonga was president of the Senate in 1991 when it decided not to renew an agreement with the United States on military bases, ending the American military's role here.

''After our Senate ended more than 400 years of foreign military presence in the Philippines, we are now back to the worst kind of military intervention,'' he said in an interview today. ''In my view, this is a violation of the Constitution that bans foreign troops and foreign facilities in the Philippines.''

He added: ''If any American soldier is killed, or if the Burnham missionaries are killed by the Abu Sayyaf, there will be tremendous pressure in the United States to widen the so-called war in the Philippines and we will have another Vietnam.''

From the left, Satur Ocampo, a congressional representative who was a spokesman of the Communist Party of the Philippines, charged that Mrs. Arroyo was currying favor with the United States military establishment as a way of neutralizing any plans for a potential coup.

''American support for her government also discourages groups plotting against her, or those out to shorten her stay or challenge her in 2004,'' he said.

Senator Rodolfo Biazon, a former Armed Forces chief of staff who chairs the Senate committee on defense, said he sponsored the resolution for next week's inquiry because he worried that the arrival of American military trainers may violate a constitutional ban on foreign soldiers entering into combat in the Philippines.

Mr. Biazon said the project raises more questions than it answers: ''What about the extent of responses that American troops may take? What kind of weapons will be used? Can the American forces use their own artillery, air support? Is this purely a training exercise, or is this a joint operation to eradicate Abu Sayyaf, or simply to win release of the hostages?''

Of the approximately 650 American soldiers who will be deployed here for up to six months, an American official said today that about 490, or three-quarters, would be for logistical support -- air crews, medical evacuation teams and supply units -- and about 160 would effectively be trainers, officially dubbed by the American military ''exercise counterparts.'' Half of those 160 or so are the Special Forces sergeants.

Setting out the rules of engagement, General Abaya, the deputy chief of staff who was a commander in the zone of conflict until a year ago, said: ''If fired upon, the Americans may fire back and withdraw. It will be the Filipinos who will pursue whoever fired against that unit. In the firefight, the Americans will be observing how the Filipinos attack.''

On the equipment side, the United States is supplying about $100 million worth of reconditioned American military equipment: a C-130 cargo plane, 8 helicopters, night vision goggles for two 100-man companies, 30,000 reconditioned M-16 rifles, and a high speed, 175-foot long Cyclone class coast guard cutter.